Beech mushroom plant named &#34;FINC-1&#34;

ABSTRACT

A new and distinct variety of mushroom plant of beech mushroom,  Hypsizigus marmoreus , named “FINC-1”, is cultivated by gathering and repeated breeding of fungal strains with dominant traits to have short culture length, short growth length, high yield, good appearance, no bitterness, and it is exquisite in stability, reproducibility and uniformity when produced.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The new variety “FINC-1” of the invention is produced from two parentalcultivars. One of the parental cultivars is “TNN-11” and the othercultivar is “Hakata-A264”, both of which were from Culture Collection ofShanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences and were also commerciallyavailable from a supermarket in Japan.

The site of development was Shanghai Finc Bio-tech Inc. in Shanghai,China.

The parental cultivars were widely cultivated in Japan and China. The“TNN-11” has good morphological characters, i.e. uniform size cap,good-looking mottles and is not bitter, but it needs long culture lengthand long growth length, while “Hakata-A264” is superior in culturelength and growth length, but is bitter.

Crossbreeding of “TNN-11” and “Hakata-A264” was performed to develop 400new breed strains of mushrooms in August 2008. Then, cultivationexperiments were carried out for verifying the trait characters of thesebreed strains from September 2008 to October 2009, consequently to chaseup adequate fungal strains (named “TN4-52”) with short growth length,high yield, good appearance, and no bitterness.

Thereafter, further cultivation experiments were repeatedly carried outfrom November 2009 to August 2010 for corroborating stability,reproducibility and uniformity of the new strains under a small-scalenumber (2,300 bottles each time), and the result proved that the newfungal strains were fit for the expected purpose of the invention, thusit is named as “FINC-1” strains ultimately. The new fungal strain“FINC-1” has been registered as an edible mushroom strain on Sep. 16,2010 by Shanghai Crop Variety Approval Committee. Then after thatlarge-scale cultivation experiments (60,000 bottles each time) wererepeatedly carried out from November 2010 to December 2011 forcorroborating adaptability, and the result proved that “FINC-1” issuitable for large-scale production.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a new and distinct variety of mushroomcharacterized particularly by its short culture length, short growthlength, high yield, good appearance, and no bitterness, and it isexquisite in stability, reproducibility and uniformity when beingproduced. This novel and distinct variety of mushroom is identified as“FINC-1”.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1A shows a top view of the new variety of mushrooms named “FINC-1”of the present invention.

FIG. 1B shows a front view of the mushrooms of FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2 is a photograph showing a perspective view of the present plantvariety cultivated in vases.

FIG. 3 shows the state of cultivating in bottles of a control variety“TNN-11” similar to the mushrooms of the invention.

FIG. 4 shows the state of cultivating in bottles of a control variety“Hakata-A264” similar to the mushrooms of the invention.

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are photographs showing a surface view and a backview, respectively, of the state of juxtapositional cultivation of the“Hakata-A264” mushrooms placed in juxtaposition. Similar to FIG. 5A andFIG. 5B, FIG. 5C and FIG. 5D are photographs of “Hokuto ShiroIchigoukin” and FIG. 5E and FIG. 5F are photographs of “Hokuto ShiroIchigoukin” and “Hakata-A264” of the state of juxtapositionalcultivation. In these figures, the designation “4” is the abbreviationof “Hakata-A264” and “F-W”, “W” are the abbreviations of “Hokuto ShiroIchigoukin”.

FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B are photographs showing a surface view and a backview, respectively, of the state of juxtapositional cultivation of theparent plants “TNN-11” (left), “Hakata-A264” (right) and the presentvariety (middle) mushroom placed in juxtaposition. In these figures, thedesignation “N” and “TNN” are the abbreviations of “TNN-11”, “N4” and“TN4-52-T1” are the abbreviations of “FINC-1”, “F-4” and “4” are theabbreviations of “Hakata-A264”.

FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B are photographs showing a surface view and a backview, respectively, of the state of juxtapositional cultivation of theparent plant “TNN-11” and the present variety of mushrooms placed injuxtaposition.

FIG. 8 is a photograph showing the differences between yield among“FINC-1” and the control variety of “TNN-11”.

FIG. 9 shows the state of “FINC-1” (yellowish, left) and “TNN-11”(brown, right) cultivated in the same room after fruit-body-formationpromotion for 21 days.

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

This invention relates to a new and distinct variety of mushroom plantof beech mushroom, Hypsizigus marmoreus, named “FINC-1”, which iscultivated by repeatedly breeding beech mushrooms with dominant traits.This new variety of mushroom has short culture length, short growthlength, high yield, good appearance, no bitterness, and is exquisite instability, reproducibility and uniformity when produced.

One actual sample of the new variety “FINC-1” of the invention is shownin FIGS. 1A and 1B. Needless to say, this illustrated sample should notbe understood as one and only embodiment of the invention because plantmorphology can be influenced not only by gene but also by culturemedium, growth condition and so on. The morphological characteristics ofthe new variety “FINC-1” of the invention will be described in detaillater.

The new variety “FINC-1” of the invention is produced from two parentalcultivars. Both the parental cultivars were from Culture Collection ofShanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences and were also commerciallyavailable from a supermarket in Japan.

Traits of New Fungal Strain “FINC-1”

The characteristics of the present plant variety will now be describedin details, with relevant comparisons with varieties “TNN-11” and“Hakata-A264”.

Juxtapositional Culture

Juxtapositional cultivation experiments were performed several times, byplacing the control varieties, “FINC-1” strain and the two parentalcultivars in juxtaposition with each other, for observing the reluctantreaction caused when the fungal strains were extraneous to each other.As a result, the juxtapositional cultivation experiments have shown that“FINC-1” was extraneous to all the parental cultivars (see Table 1A andTable 1B below, +: inhibition zone, −: no inhibition zone formation).

TABLE 1A Results of juxtapositional cultivation experiments Hokuto ShiroHakata- Similar variety Ichigoukin A264 Hokuto Shiro Ichigoukin − +Hakata-A264 + −

TABLE 1B Results of juxtapositional cultivation experiments Similarvariety TNN-11 Hakata-A264 FINC-1 + +The control varieties, “Hokuto Shiro Ichigoukin” and “Hakata-A264”(well-known different cultivars), were commercially available from asupermarket in Japan. No inhibition zone was formed between the controlvarieties themselves and clear inhibition zone was formed between thecontrol varieties (see Table 1A and FIG. 5A-FIG. 5F).

The experiments for the aforementioned reluctant reaction were performedby inoculating the “FINC-1” strains and the control strains on a potatodextrose agar medium with a distance of 3 centimeters. After conductingthe cultivation at 24° C. for 26 days, the reluctant reaction of thetesting strains was measured. Under the experimental condition, theinhibition zone between “FINC-1” and “TNN-11” was not as clear as theinhibition zone between “FINC-1” and Hakata-A264 (see FIG. 6A and FIG.6B below). Juxtapositional cultivation experiments between “FINC-1” and“TNN-11” was performed once more, and clear inhibition zone was formedafter conducting the cultivation at 24° C. for 35 days (see FIG. 7A andFIG. 7B below).

Length of culture from spawning to fruit-body-formation promotion,length of fruit-body-formation promotion to harvest and yield.

The trait of growth length and yield changed with the length of culturefrom spawning to fruit-body-formation promotion was investigated. Sevenlengths of culture were established at 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95 and 100days for the control “TNN-11”. The results were summarized in Table 2Abelow. At the same time, six lengths of culture were established at 70,75, 80, 85, 90 and 95 days for “FINC-1”, and the results were summarizedin Table 2A below.

TABLE 2A TNN-11 Culture Growth Yield length (days) length (days)(g/bottle) 70 27 135 75 24 132 80 25 146 85 24 153 90 24 157 95 24.5 171100 23.5 160

TABLE 2B FINC-1 Culture Growth Yield length (days) length (days)(g/bottle) 70 24 139 75 23 171 80 23 168 85 21.5 189 90 21 185 95 20 182

Based on the results shown in Table 2A and Table 2B, the best length ofculture of “TNN-11” and “FINC-1” were 95 days and 85 days respectively,because the yield was the highest for this length. Meanwhile, the growthlengths of “TNN-11” and “FINC-1” were 24.5 days and 21.5 days at theirhighest yield, respectively.

Based on the results shown in Table 2A and Table 2B, the growth lengthsof “TNN-11” go up and down around 24 days under the condition of culturelengths last from 75 to 100 days, while the growth lengths of “FINC-1”go down from 23 to 20 days stably. Table 2A and Table 2B also show thatthe yield of “FINC-1” is higher than the yield of “TNN-11” at everygrowth length from 70 to 95 days, and that can be seen in FIG. 8.

Cultivation experiments were repeatedly carried out from November 2009to August 2010 for corroborating stability, reproducibility anduniformity of the new strains under a small-scale number (2,300 bottleseach time), and the results is shown in Table 3.

Based on the results shown in Table 3, “FINC-1” harvested its higheryield with its shorter culture length and growth length compared to thatof “TNN-11”.

TABLE 3 Strain Culture Growth Yield name length (days) length (days)(g/bottle) Exp. 1 FINC-1 84 22 188 TNN-11 91 23.5 166 Exp. 2 FINC-1 8522 177 TNN-11 96 23 163Large-scale cultivation experiments (60,000 bottles each time) wererepeatedly carried out from November 2010 to December 2011 forcorroborating adaptability, and one of the results is shown in Table 4.

The experiments were carried out just as the tradition productionprocess except for the seed fungi. The culture length was 84 days, thegrowth length was 21 days and the yield was 185 g/bottle, all theresults were better than that of the control “TNN-11”.

TABLE 4 Culture Growth Yield Strain name length (days) length (days)(g/bottle) FINC-1 84 21 185 TNN-11 92 23 170

Summary of Cultivation Experiments

Cultivation experiments were repeatedly carried out, which includedmini-scale, small-scale and large-scale, and last from August 2008 toDecember 2011. All the results proved that the new variety hasadvantages of shorter culture length, shorter growth length, higheryield, good appearance, and it is exquisite in stability,reproducibility and uniformity when being produced.

Eating-Quality Characteristics

First, fresh beech mushroom samples each having a fruit body of 200grams were fried with soybean oil for 1 minute, and then, cooled at roomtemperature. Thereafter, blind tasting tests were conducted among 19tasting testers to confirm the taste of the new variety “FINC-1”compared to the control varieties with respect to bitterness andfirmness. The result of the tasting tests is shown in Table 5. As isevident from the tasting result, the new variety “FINC-1” was assessedby almost all of tasting testers as not bitter or slightly bitter.

Out of the 19 tasting testers, 89% of the testers appraised “FINC-1” asnot bitter or slightly bitter, 68% of the testers appraised “FINC-1” ascrunchy. The tasting results show that the new variety “FINC-1” isdeliciously flavored.

TABLE 5 Numbers of testers who made valuations of the varietiesbitterness Slightly not firmness Strain name bitter bitter bitterCrunchy Not crunchy FINC-1 2 5 12 13 6 TNN-11 1 4 14 9 10 Hakata-A264 163 0 14 5

Morphological Characteristics of “FINC-1” Cultivated Experimentally

The cultivation was conducted using bottles having a capacity of 850 ccand containing sawdust culture medium. The culture medium mainly containmixed wood sawdust of broad leaf tree with a little corn meal, rice branand wheat bran and so on. After cultivated at 22° C. for 85 days fungusscratching and sprouting of seed fungi were performed at a temperatureof 14° C. Thereafter, the fungal strains thus bred were further nurturedat a temperature of 15° C., and at a changed illumination intensitybased on the growth state. The air humidity was at a humidity of 95%from fruit-body-formation promotion to harvest. Finally, the grownmushrooms were harvested when the caps thereof reach maturity.

The new variety “FINC-1” grown in the manner as described above has thefollowing trait characteristics. The “FINC-1” has a dark brown cap untilone or two days before harvested (see FIG. 1C), but it changed to ayellow tea color cap when the caps finally reach maturity (see FIG. 1Dand FIG. 9). Distinct rounded mottles are distributed all over the capwhen the cap is young (see FIG. 1C), and the ratio of cap covered by thedistinct mottles become smaller little by little with the cap growth,then only the upper surface of the fungous pileus (except for theperiphery) was covered by the mottles (see FIG. 1B). The gills of thefungus are greyish white and normal. The stem is greyish white, higher,centric to the cap, not hairy and medium-sized diameter.

As is apparent from the foregoing description, the new variety “FINC-1”has advantages of short culture length, short growth length, high yield,good appearance, no bitterness, and it is exquisite in stability,reproducibility and uniformity when being produced. “FINC-1” expresslyis distinct in its genotype and morphological trait character, whichmake it a distinction from the existing varieties of this sort.

What is claimed is:
 1. A new and distinct variety of beech mushroomplant as substantially illustrated or described in the specification.